


I'm Yours

by hopelessbookgeek



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelessbookgeek/pseuds/hopelessbookgeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John/Mary one-shot loosely based on the song "I'm Yours" by The Script.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Yours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frecklestherobot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklestherobot/gifts).



“Just the coffee, thanks,” John said to the girl behind the counter, pulling out his wallet. It was a grey day, he was chilly and damp, and the only thing he wanted in the world was a hot cup of coffee.

“Cash only, luv,” the girl said, referring to the card John was holding out.

“Damn it. Ah, I don’t think I have any cash…”

“Never mind, I’ve got it,” a female voice behind John said, handing the girl a fiver and smiling at John. She was very pretty, about John’s age with short blonde hair and grey-green eyes.

“Thanks.” John got his coffee and waited for the woman to order hers. “I’m John, ah, John Watson.”

“Nice to meet you, John. I’m Mary.”

“Hi, Mary. D’you… d’you want to sit down with me?”

The girl behind the counter handed Mary her coffee and she nodded. “Love to. It’ll be nice to distract myself from CVs for a little while.”

“Oh, what do you do?” Damn it, John thought. CVs. She’s probably looking for a job, she doesn’t ‘do’ anything right now. Bloody hell. He felt himself start to blush. “Sorry, that wasn’t–”

“Nah, it’s alright.” Mary’s smile was warm and gentle and it was contagious. John didn’t think he’d ever seen someone with such a beautiful smile before. “I’m a nurse, but I’ll feel better calling myself that after I’ve got a job again.”

John thought that maybe he could swing something at his practice, but he held off on offering that just yet. Job offers ought to wait until at least the third date. Not that this was a date, right?  
“Well, good luck.”

“Thanks so much. How about you?”

“Oh, I’m… I’m a doctor.”

“So you outrank me.” A cheeky wink. Their conversation lasted a while, after which Mary agreed to go to dinner with John that Friday, and John never looked back.

***

The knock on the door of the flat took John completely by surprise. He opened it and there was Mary in this light purple cardigan that brought out the green in her eyes. “Oh. Hi, Mary.”

“Hello, John. Are you almost ready?”

“Ready…?”

“We were going to go to the cinema? You made the plans last week…”

“Oh, bloody… I completely forgot, I’m so sorry, I–”

Mary held up a hand, looking concerned. “Is everything okay, John? You don’t look… I mean, you look… sad. Is everything alright?”

“I, ah…” He cleared his throat and clenched his jaw, determined not to let some of his sadness show. He’d been seeing Mary for less than a month, and he wasn’t going to take the chance of scaring her away so early. He wasn’t going to make that mistake with her. “It’s fine, I’m… fine.”

“You’re not. Here, let me put on a cup of tea, we’ll talk about it.” She put the kettle on and took a seat on the couch, gesturing for John to join her. “Okay. What’s the matter?”

“We’ll miss the film…”

“John.” Mary took him by the hand and just looked at him with those big soft eyes. He felt himself start to crumble. “Your happiness is so much more important than any film.”

He clutched her hand like a lifeline. It must have hurt her but she said nothing. “Just… a year ago today I lost a good friend of mine. That’s all.”

“Oh, well, if that’s it. It’s okay to be upset. It’s always hard to lose someone you love.” She didn’t do that thing that everyone else did. She didn’t tell him that his friend would want him to be happy, she didn’t tell him that surely he must be used to this by now because he was in the army. She didn’t tell him that he was a man in his thirties and he had no right to be crying like a child. She handled his grief like an expert. He wondered who she had lost.

He didn’t realize he’d begun to cry until Mary was pulling him into a tight embrace, and he was pretty sure that he was getting her pretty sweater wet but she didn’t seem to care, just rubbed his back and told him that it was okay. His sobs were broken and wordless because he didn’t want to be crying but he was, because he trusted Mary with even this most secret part of him. (He would realize later that this was the moment he started to fall in love with her, but at the moment all he cared about was that she was there.)

It probably would have ended up as a pretty embarrassing moment, except that then he sneezed three times in quick succession. “Bless,” Mary said, and John apologized, saying it might be cat fur. “Oh, sorry. The little love took a nap on my jumper earlier, I thought I’d gotten all the fur off, but I suppose not.”

Her smile was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud and John had to answer it, wiping at his eyes irritably even as he did. He hated crying in front of people. He didn’t know what to say, but wanted so much to say something, and he was spared from some stupid remark by the whistle of the kettle. Mary jumped up to get it. “I know we were going to go out tonight, but what do you say to staying in? We could just have tea by candlelight, if you’d like.”

“I’d like that, thanks.” He took the cup from Mary gratefully, the tea scalding through the thin china. “Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You would be just fine without me, John Watson.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” He put the cup down on the coffee table and turned to face Mary. Even just sitting on a couch drinking a cup of tea, there was a kind of elegance to her. “Mary Morstan… I’ve been a lot of things to a lot of people. Somebody’s army buddy, somebody’s doctor, somebody’s brother. But the most important thing I am, the most important thing I’ve ever been… I’m yours.”

The sweet surprise on her face was the loveliest thing, and finally, after a year of pain and loneliness and repressed emotions, John started to heal.


End file.
